I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2:9-10, NIV)
Maybe we shouldn’t touch this passage with a 10-foot pole. Maybe I should just go into my closet and get dressed, and my wife should go into her closet and get dressed, and when we emerge we can look at each other and say, “I like what you’re wearing!” Then off we go.
But here are three reasons we won’t do that:
– So many things written for men in Scripture have an application for women, and so many things written for women have an application for men. This is one of those things.
– The consideration of clothing fits right into our discussion this month of the traits we should wear as those who follow Christ.
– These verses are really about humility, and that is the garment we take up today from our reference in Colossians 3:12, where we are told to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
When I go to the closet where my clothes can be found, I select something to wear for the day. But when I go to the closet of Christlike attributes I am to don every day, they are already laid out for me. And among those is humility.
If you have been reading with us for a while, you have likely heard me refer to the two master traits of one who walks with Christ: love and humility. It is when we humble ourselves that the Lord lifts us up (James 4:10). But just how do we do this? Is it more than not wearing designer clothes and Augusta National labels?
Your pride needs to be removed in order for humility to be properly worn.C.S. Lewis wrote pointedly about humility in his classic, Mere Christianity. There he provided a first step toward humility: “The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it.”
So if you want to be humble, you need to look in the mirror of honesty. You may even need to let two or three close people, including your spouse, be that mirror. And you need to ask them, “Am I proud? If so, how does it show itself?”
You see, this is a clothes-changing act. Your pride needs to be removed in order for humility to be properly worn. The sin must give way if the quality would take its place.
Now you know why today’s passage is not only for the women in the crowd. Every man harbors pride; every man desires notice in one realm or another. Every woman and every man. Until, that is, Christ starts changing us. Until our greater desire is for God to get the glory. John the Baptist spoke the most meaningful of all humble words when it comes to our relationship with Jesus: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Start decreasing today and you’ll slip into something more comfortable: humility.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 12, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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